Channel intelligence is the latest company to be purchased by Google in a battle to boost e-commerce. The search engine company is reported to have paid $125 million for the company which was announced on 6th February this year. Channel Intelligence will improve the user experience for making online purchases.

The marketing strategy of online businesses will be improved by using Channel Intelligence, making it easier for consumers to make a purchase directly. There are “where to buy” buttons on websites used by companies like Philips, Target, Best Buy and Hewlett-Packard which help the consumer to buy their products. According to Channel Intelligence, $2 billion of sales referrals are driven by the company. A spokesperson for Google said:

“We want to help consumers save time and money by improving the online shopping experience. We think Channel Intelligence will help create a better shopping experience for users and help merchants increase sales across the Web.”

One of the products of Channel Intelligence, the Buy Now app, lets retailers provide an up to date list of which online retailers have the product in stock. This is a driver for impulse purchases and can also influence the way that future online and in-store purchases are made. According to CI, around 850 retail stores use the technology, based in 31 countries. This could have an effect on the search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts of companies who derive many of the sales from web users. As Google plays a huge role in online advertising, retailers who don’t adopt the technology may soon see themselves falling behind their competitors.